KDE 2008 :FDDLE@KP

B;<8bX[\dp)''/ :FDDLE@KP:FE>I<>8K@FE About 300 attendees gathered at this year’s annual KDE desktop developer event in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, .

BY ANIKA KEHRER

rom August 9 to August 15, the projects and distributions to Campus De Nayer – part of the develop and patch their own =Lessius Technical University in branches autonomously. Sint-Katelijne-Waver [1] – provided the KDE e.V. always uses the backdrop for about 300 Akademy 2008 developer conference to stage attendees. its annual general meeting. Cornelius Schuhmacher, a member of This year it passed the “Code the KDE e.V. board, presented a keynote of Conduct,” a set of behav- talk focused on the current state of af- ioral rules governing the KDE fairs at KDE. Vincent Untz, Gnome project [3]. For example, the =`^li\(1B;<Gifa\ZkC\X[\i=iXebBXic`kjZ_\b# Foundation board member and Gnome code of conduct stipulates J\YXjk`XeB•^c\i#Xe[=iXeqB\]\iYZb ]ifdc\]kkf Release Manager, delivered an emotional that members of the KDE i`^_k jliifle[\[Ypfk_\iZfe]\i\eZ\Xkk\e[\\j% talk on cross-desktop platforms. Untz community should treat each called for a common desktop platform, other with respect and offer mutual Last year’s award winners – Danny saying that users don’t really mind assistance. Allen, Matthias Kretz, and Sebastian which desktop environment an applica- Trüg – presented the 2008 Application tion belongs to because they judge appli- Cffb`e^8_\X[Xe[8nXi[j Award to Mark Kretschmann for Ama- cations on their own merit. In many areas, the program showed the rok. They emphasized the publicity gen- On the GUI front, a budding social effects of community growth. Now there erated by the player – it is also popular desktop was introduced by Frank Kar- is a five-person community working with non-KDE users – and went on to litschek, the maintainer of several art- group that liaises between developers praise Kretschmann for his vision and work and contributer web pages. In his and users. And the association had ability to motivate. keynote talk, Karlitschek proposed new something tangible to show here: Oxy- Each award combines an objective plasmoids for the KDE desktop, includ- gen member, , introduced and a personal achievement. For exam- ing a kind of buddy list that would dis- the first official KDE association logo. ple, the jury gave the prize for the best play photos of users near a person’s The association also proved that it has non-application to Nuno Pinheiro for his computer location. sound economic sense. In 2007, assets icon collection in Oxygen, but he was Karlitschek also suggested a KDE totaled about EUR 82,000 and liabilities also awarded the prize for bridging the event calendar and contributor photos in were about EUR 57,000 on the associa- gap between designers and program- addition to names in the About informa- tion’s well-managed project account. In mers. The jury’s special prize went to tion for KDE applications. Karlitschek, the future, the association will increas- Aaron Seigo from the KDE association who is from Stuttgart, , has ingly canvas for individual sustaining for his contribution to the Plasma Desk- published an initial draft of his ideas on- members who contribute at least EUR top, for his leading role in the developer line for public review and feedback [2]. 100 a year to KDE e.V. One of the topics community, and for promoting the proj- The chair of the KDE association, on the Annual General Meeting agenda ect. Seigo became a member of the Sebastian Kügler, spoke to Linux Pro/ was how to finance more developer board in 2005. Linux Magazine and said the KDE com- meetings – workshops with about 10 at- In Sint-Katelijne-Waver, attendees munity has grown considerably since tendees for whom the association would will remember him for dancing on stage starting work on KDE 4.0. He said that cover traveling expenses. to fill gaps between talk delays. p the project continues to reach out to non-programmers, such as graphic art- Only Online INFO ists and translators. In their keynote Linux Magazine/Linux Pro Magazine re- [1] Akademy: http:// akademy. . org speech, Kügler and Novell’s Dirk Müller ported live from the 2008 KDE Akademy. [2] Social Desktop, Draft 1: http:// www. talked about collaboration methods. Visit http:// www. linux-magazine. com/ open-collaboration-services. org According to Kügler, it is important to online/ news/ akademy_video to view view the KDE desktop as a kind of tree [3] KDE Code of Conduct: http:// www. video greetings from KDE developers. kde. org/ code-of-conduct with a stable trunk and to encourage

NOVEMBER 2008 ISSUE 96 93

093-093_akademy.indd 93 11.09.2008 14:01:51 Uhr